The present invention relates to storage of network management information and more particularly to efficient representations of network management information object identifiers.
It is desirable to manage and control nodes of a network such as a TCP/IP network from one or more network management stations connected to the network. The network management stations then monitor and control other nodes in the network including hosts, routers, etc. A protocol known as the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is used to communicate management information between network management stations and management agent software operating on other network nodes. SNMP is described in Case, RFC 1157, “A Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), (Internet Engineering Task Force May 1990), the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference. Using SNMP in a TCP/IP network, a network management station may monitor traffic at a remote node, modify network operation parameters at the remote node, etc.
To facilitate SNMP operation, nodes of a TCP/IP network including the network management stations maintain network management information databases known as MIBs (management information bases). MIBs are described in McCloghrie, et al., RFC 1213, “Management Information Base for Network Management of TCP/IP Based Internets: MIB-II” (Internet Engineering Task Force March 1991), the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.
The MIB at each node consists of many individual objects, each having a single value. For example, a particular node may include within its MIB an object whose value specifies the total number of IP datagrams received at that node, including those received in error. The MIB at the network management station may include an object specifying the time since the network management software at the station was last reinitialized. Each MIB includes a large number of such objects.
Each MIB object is specified by an object identifier (OID). The OED specifies the type of object and a particular instance of that type. For example, an object whose value indicates the total number of input octets on an interface of a node would be denoted by the OID1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.10.x, where x indicates a specific instance of the type identified by the values preceding x. In this case, x is just one integer and identifies a particular interface of the node storing the object referenced by the OID.
Each integer in each OID requires 4 bytes of storage. With the many OIDs that must be stored at the network management stations and other nodes of the network, there is a great requirement for memory storage space to store them. What is needed is a system for memory efficient storage of network management object identifiers such as OIDs.